| Supportive environment |
Mentorship:
Influence of faculty mentors on the project scope, question, understanding the process, both at UIC or locally
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10/10 (100%) |
Present: “The interaction with the mentoring committee and having somebody give that level of interest into what you’re doing. Interest, attention, time, that’s such a gift. I was really grateful to have an excuse to ask for that. In a way, because I’m requiredto. Any other time I’ve desired that sort of thing it sort of feels like an imposition or I’m too nervous to ask. It kind of gives you an excuse to work with experts that I don’t otherwise get easily. It helped overcome some of those barriers that I’ve had to that sort of mentorship outside of a formal program.” (No.9, female, 2015 graduate)
Absent: “I had a struggle with my first supervisor. He described his strategy as “benign neglect” in a comical way. He wouldn’t reach out to you if you wouldn’t reach out to him and I knew myself that I needed someone who is gonna crack the whip every once in a while, and keep me on track.” (No.2, female, 2014 graduate)
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Central Advisor:
Assistance or thesis advice provided by the program director
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5/10 (50%) |
“[Senior faculty member] was the faculty “mom” and she would tell me occasionally that it was time to start thinking about my thesis.” (No.7, female, 2014 graduate)
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Expectations:
Clear expectations about the process and timing of thesis deadlines, defense (including the thesis handbook)
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7/10 (70%) |
Present: “Every 6 months you have to submit an update of where you are in the thesis once you start. And it is very simple and does not take long to do it but looking at the mile markers about what they expect was very helpful.” (No.6, male, 2016 graduate)
“Process is pretty simple and clear – there is a thesis manual, so if you skim it and then read it in more detail when you need to, then it is no problem at all.” (No.7, female, 2014 graudate)
Absent: “I didn’t understand what a thesis was, especially as a PT (not MD).” (No.5, female, 2015 graduate)
“It was my first thesis; so many things were unclear of course. So, I had to revise. There is one manual for thesis development by UIC and also I had to review many other theses to see how to write them.” (No.1, female, 2015 graduate)
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Students:
Peer support provided from student to student, networking among peers
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5/10 (50%) |
“Rely on classmates, because they will help you make it through.” (No.4, female, 2016 graduate)
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Thesis Defense:
Preparation for defense and/or sense of collegiality
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9/10 (90%) |
“[I was] in front of a group of incredibly supportive people who have a vested interest in seeing [me] succeed. It was great to have everybody in the room and show off this thing that you worked so hard to put together.” (No.4, female, 2016 graduate)
“[The defense] was warm and welcoming and had I known then how it would be I would have looked forward to it more.” (No. 7, female, 2014 graduate)
“It was really like a celebration. I just felt like a presentation of my project and answering questions. Someone said you are going to know more about it than anyone else in the room, and that was true. I didn’t need to be nearly as nervous as I was.” (No.9, female, 2015 graduate)
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Time
Management
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Accountability: Accountability and deadlines imposed externally, with mentors or others |
3/10 (30%) |
Present: “My new supervisor would meet with me and set deadlines and how things got done. Making it a priority, setting clear goals and being accountable to your supervisor to meet those goals.” (No.2, female, 2014 graduate)
Absent: “One thing that I missed about the coursework… I had no trouble with the coursework because of the deadlines... The lack of external deadlines was a huge problem... I needed to come up with deadlines and it was very hard to do that.” (No.6, male, 2016 graduate)
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Setting Aside Time: Setting aside time for thesis completion, either in blocks or gradually |
7/10 (70%) |
“At the end of the day, you just need to tell yourself you’re going to get it done.” (No.10, female, 2016 graduate)
“I would have wanted a more formal plan for communication and how to get the project done. Ultimately did a Gannt chart for process for organization. Even if I got off track, was able to jump back in and get on track and keep track of deadlines.” (No.5, female, 2015 graduate)
“I took vacation time - that was ABSOLUTELY important… I actually went away to a hotel … it was helpful to get away from the family and from the office at work because of all the interruptions.” (No.6, male, 2016 graduate)
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| Available Resources |
Help: Hired or volunteer help in the process of thesis completion |
9/10 (90%) |
“The only cost that I had -- my daughter videotaped it, bribed with concert tickets, bought bagels for actors.” (No.4, female, 2016 graduate) |
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Electronic: Electronic resources used during research or writing process |
8/10 (80%) |
“Sometimes a big kitchen table and a bunch of sticky notes can be just as effective as [coding software]. We used google docs to share the code back and forth.” (No.10, female, 2016 graduate)
“My main friend was Google.” (No.1, female, 2015 graduate)
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Prototype Use: Seeking out examples of completed theses or attending a defense |
5/10 (50%) |
“I went to articles that I had found as well-written in the past and also looked at colleagues’ articles to see how they get organized ...to have a kind of concrete example.” (No.3, male, 2016 graduate)
“I recommend going to a thesis defense early as soon as you can to give an idea of scope.” (No.5, female, 2015 graduate)
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Grant Funding: Funding secured for costs incurred during thesis research |
4/10 (40%) |
“I got a small grant from my hospital for transcription of the interviews and paid for the tape recorder.” (No.2, female, 2014 graduate) |
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Other: Other listed resources |
3/10 (30%) |
“I actually bought two dissertation handbooks.” (No.5, female, 2015 graduate) |
| Coursework as a Foundation |
Courses: Individual courses or coursework, in general, influenced the thesis |
9/10 (90%) |
“In a lot of the coursework that I did, I used that coursework to build my thesis. The qualitative methods course was also very helpful, because some of the data was qualitative. But all of the courses were very important.” (No.4, female, 2016 graduate)
“In fact all the courses were instrumental in this thesis because I could use the knowledge acquired in each course.” (No.1, male, 2015 graduate)
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Career
Alignment with Thesis
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Experience: Job responsibilities align with the thesis process. The job requires a completed thesis/degree. |
2/10 (20%) |
“The question came out of my experience as a teacher. I could not find good materials for phase 1 of TBL and we could not find good quality preparation materials...So I was going to develop some videos and I wanted to make it ‘count twice.’” (No.6, male, 2016 graduate) |
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Program of Research: Students are interested in using the thesis to meet their long-term research goals in a specific subject, becoming part of the research network in subject area |
4/10 (40%) |
“Your thesis should be something that you’re interested in. It’s your chance to really play and think through different techniques and learn different things. It’s easy to just get it done, but it’s not necessarily something you’re really proud of if you don’t try to think through what it is that makes you interested. I think finding something that makes you think, keeps you passionate, keeps you excited to find the answer will get you closer to finishing. If you’re bored about the topic by the time you finish your proposal, it’s probably the wrong project.” (No.10, female, 2016 graduate) |
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Educational Goals: Thesis process meets personal or educational learning goals |
5/10 (50%) |
“I thought, well maybe I should do something that, what I perceived, was going to be harder but would have the benefit of learning from the process...And I’m glad that I did that. It expanded my horizon.” (No.6, male, 2016 graduate) |
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Research Question Development
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Experience Based: Research question derived from practical to day-to-day work |
6/10 (60%) |
“Research question was based on day to day work I was already doing. I kept a running list of things I was curious about. I was doing a lot of work on CSR …[I] might as well make it my project.” (No.4, female, 2016 graduate) |
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Educational Goals Based: Research question was based on wanting to learn new methodologies or techniques in health professions education |
3/10 (30%) |
“I wanted to learn different techniques. Someone at my local site who’s a Med Ed researcher said that the advantage of your masters is to go and be interested and learn different techniques and add them to your toolbox. I took that to heart. I balanced between both qualitative and quantitative approaches -- both measurement and exploratory techniques.” (No.10, female, 2016 graduate) |
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Feasibility of Project: Research question related to being able to achieve desired outcomes |
2/10 (20%) |
“Picking a project where I had control. I didn’t have to navigate a lot of politics to get this implemented. I didn’t want to get hung up about things out of my control - I saw that happening to other people.” (No.9, female, 2015 graduate)
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| Research Question Scope |
Scope Stayed Small:
Student intentionally tried to keep the scope small
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3/10 (30%) |
“Pick a smaller and achievable project. The types of smaller projects that are presented at the MHPE conference are just right. Don’t bite off too much. Picking a project of a small or moderate scale is KEY!” (No.7, female, 2014 graduate)
“I knew that I have to pick a small, doable project: ‘small is beautiful.” (No.2, female, 2014 graduate)
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Scope From Big to Small: Starting too big and narrowing later |
5/10 (50%) |
“You can come up with some very grand ideas, but then when you start digging down, the devil is in the details. When you start digging down, you realize, wow, just answering specific aim one is five specific aims within it. Because your understanding of the methodology is limited. It’s not until you start diving into the methods you’re going to use to answer this question that you start realizing, holy cow, this is a life’s worth. This is not just a single question.” (No.8, male, 2016 graduate) |
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Enlarging Scope: Scope kept getting larger over time |
4/10 (40%) |
“The scope was ginormous. I think because I am relatively experienced with scholarship already, having done residency research projects and numerous other projects on the side, I don’t think my committee felt that they needed to hold me back and stop me from overreaching. So, in fact they probably egged me on and added parts.” (No.10, female, 2016 graduate) |
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Mentorship Help with Scope: Mentorship assistance in narrowing or broadening the scope of the project |
7/10 (70%) |
“Wanted to [study] medical students and residents, but the committee said ‘No! You are going to focus on students only.’ They told me that it was too much and I’m glad they did.” (No.6, male, 2016 graduate)
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